COMMEMORATING THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF CADRES, SOLDIERS AND PEOPLE GATHERING TO THE NORTH IN QUY NHON (May 16, 1955 - May 16, 2025):
According to the assessment in the History of Binh Dinh Provincial Party Committee (1945 - 1954), the gathering of armed forces and political cadres to the North was an important content in the process of implementing the Geneva Agreement - a task of special strategic significance for Inter-zone V. Binh Dinh Province was chosen as the gathering area for 300 days and Quy Nhon Port became the only troop transfer point to bring forces from all over Inter-zone V to the North.
300 days of history
The regrouping force was very large, including the entire main force, most of the cadres at all levels, the youth volunteer teams, some cadres’ families, cadres’ children and students sent to the North to study on their own. In addition, there were also families of compatriots from the North who asked to return home. Binh Dinh province alone had about 10,700 people regrouping.
 |
Quy Nhon residents took to the streets to see off their relatives who had gathered in the North. Photo: Documents on display at the Provincial Historical Archives Center |
According to the book Binh Dinh Women in the Resistance War Against America, Saving the Country (1954 - 1975), in late 1954 and early 1955 - when the soldiers returned from the battlefields to the plains to prepare for regrouping - the people, especially mothers and sisters, wholeheartedly helped. They contributed bamboo to build shelters, donated food, and took care of the soldiers' health like family.
Many localities held emotional farewell rallies. At Bong Son bridgehead (Hoai Nhon), a rally with thousands of people, mostly women, was held to bid farewell to the troops. Another large rally took place at Quy Nhon stadium - becoming a touching highlight in the memories of those who witnessed the historic troop movement years ago.
In the relic file "Quy Nhon Port - The 300-day point of troop transfer to the North" of the Provincial Museum, it is clearly stated: The Quy Nhon City Party Committee and Administrative Committee pay special attention to ensuring security and order in the area. The guerrilla forces coordinate with the army to organize tight defense along the coast and communes such as Phuoc Hai, Phuoc Chau, always ready to respond to any situation. In the inner city, organizations such as the military management board, the monitoring team, and the control team of the International Commission were also established, coordinating their activities smoothly to ensure absolute safety for the area.
 |
Relic of the site where troops were transferred to the North in Quy Nhon City. Photo: H.THU |
After going through many challenges, the regrouping to the North in Binh Dinh province was completed as planned. On May 16, 1955, the last ship left Quy Nhon Port, officially closing the 300-day history (the regrouping began on July 20, 1954).
In the living memory of the "red seeds "
Among the people who gathered that year, there was a 9-year-old boy - Nguyen Tan Hieu, from Hoai Hao commune, Hoai Nhon district (now Hoai Hao ward, Hoai Nhon town; currently living in Thi Nai ward, Quy Nhon city). Later, he became Deputy Secretary of Binh Dinh Provincial Party Committee.
“As the son of the Chairman of the Farmers’ Association of Hoai Nhon district, I was sent to the North in 1954. During the farewell ceremony in the first grade of the village school, my teacher said to the whole class: “Stand up and see Hieu off to the North to study and meet Uncle Ho. I wish Hieu good study so that he can return to build his homeland later,” Mr. Hieu emotionally recalled.
On the day of departure, his parents prepared for their little son a set of intact clothes, a rice pole, a tube of dry food and a bamboo tube of water. His father drove him from home to the northern bank of Lai Giang River (now in Bong Son Ward, Hoai Nhon Town), then stood on the bank watching his son's figure get on the boat to the southern bank.
Following his father’s instructions, the boy Hieu walked alone along the national highway. In the evening, he was guided to a house by the connecting points to receive people going to the assembly area to rest, and continued on his way the next morning. “In Quy Nhon, children from many places were organized into groups. Each group had an older student, who was also a person going to the assembly area, in charge of leading the children down to the train and supporting them when they first arrived in the North,” Mr. Hieu said.
 |
Southern Student School No. 6 in Hai Phong City in 1964. Photo: XUAN MAI |
70 years have passed, poet and journalist Bui Thi Xuan Mai (born in 1948, from Vinh Thinh commune, Vinh Thanh district; currently living in Tran Phu ward, Quy Nhon city) still cannot stop being moved when recalling her childhood memories: “In early 1955, I was still a tiny girl with long hair following my mother to the North. The Polish ship docked at Sam Son ( Thanh Hoa ) in the bitter cold weather. The people welcomed us very warmly... My mother and I were brought to live with a family, with an old lady that everyone called Ba Bu. My mother and I were given a straw bed to keep us warm...”
According to Ms. Mai, the southern students were then sent to study at boarding schools in many northern provinces and cities such as Thanh Hoa, Ha Dong, Hanoi, Ha Nam, Vinh Phuc... but the largest number was in Hai Phong.
Mrs. Mai engraved in her heart the memory of January 1963, when Uncle Ho visited the Southern schools in Hai Phong: “Uncle told us to try to study hard, to be worthy of being Uncle Ho’s good children, to be the red seeds of the South in the North. He also reminded teachers to take better care of the children, because they lacked the love of their parents…”
According to Mr. Hieu, most of the students from the South who gathered came from poor families and had limited education. Thanks to the Party and Uncle Ho's great care, most of the students who went to the North to study graduated from university, many of whom later became leading scientists in the country. In Binh Dinh province alone, according to statistics in the book Modern Binh Dinh Doctors by two authors Nguyen Phu - Nguyen Thieu (published in 2007), there are nearly 300 doctors, associate professors, and professors who grew up from the Southern students who were trained in the North.
“Being regrouped to the North was an opportunity to change our lives. We were given a thorough education and were constantly determined to train ourselves to become people who would contribute to the cause of liberating, building and developing our homeland and country,” Mr. Hieu emphasized.
As planned, on May 16, 2025, the Provincial Party Committee will organize a scientific conference on 300 days of troop movement to the North in Binh Dinh, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of this event. The conference focuses on the following issues: Affirming the wise and strategic leadership of the Party Central Committee and President Ho Chi Minh in deciding to move cadres, soldiers, people and students from the South to the North, preparing important forces for the struggle to liberate the South, unify and build the country. Evaluating the results achieved and lessons learned by the Provincial Party Committee through the above historical event. Paying tribute to and honoring the contributions of cadres, soldiers, people and students from the South to the North; fostering and promoting revolutionary heroism, the spirit of great solidarity, national pride and self-reliance.
HOAI THU
Source: https://baobinhdinh.vn/viewer.aspx?macm=1&macmp=1&mabb=355192
Comment (0)